Tuesday, 4 November 2014

DCC Campaign: The Ten Blades of the Company of Ten Blades

(note: this relates to some material for the campaign that hasn't actually shown up yet in the campaign, so if you're playing in my DCC campaign and you read this, beware of spoilers!)

The following are all blades which were used by a great band of adventurers who were legendary in the region around Goldhalcon some 500 years ago. Until they were all slaughtered by the gargantuan dragon Bashaphat, they were legendary for their adventuring, and for all having awesome magic weapons. Today the swords are presumed to be found in the petrified corpse of Bashaphat, somewhere in the area of the Ominous Range.

1. The Shattered Sword of AlhayadThis is a +2 Longsword (neutral alignment, intelligence 7), which was broken in the battle with Bashaphat. Even broken it still does 1d6 damage with a +2 bonus to hit and damage; its intellect is dormant while broken. If it were to be repaired somehow, it would awaken the sword's sprite, and the weapon would do an extra +2/+2 versus any non-neutral beings, and an extra d10 damage against outsiders of any kind, be they archons of G.O.D., rebel daemons, or beings from the Void Beyond. The sword, when awake, will also do 2hp damage per round to the wielder if the wielder is not Neutral.Unfortunately, the Shattered Sword is cursed to be broken again; any time the sword gets a critical hit, there is a 1/6 chance that the sword will shatter; if it does so, the creature struck must make a DC22 Fortitude save or die instantly as the sword breaks.

2. The Switchblade of Vinnie the ElfA retractable techno-magical weapon, activated by the use of a switch on the handle, the weapon has three settings: dagger, rapier, or comb. In dagger form it does 1d4+1 and has the quality of returning to the hand when thrown. As a rapier, it does 1d6+1 and grants a +1 to the wielder's AC while using it. As a comb, it will with a single brush give the wielder and impeccable pompadour.

3. The Oranganium Sword Made from rare Oranganium, this orange-coloured short sword grants +1 to hit and damage. It also grants any wielder with an Intelligence of 8 or higher the ability to detect the presence of any mutants or goblinoids within 500', and the ability to see invisible creatures within 50'. Use of either power requires light concentration (it does not happen automatically, but as long as the wielder is actively using the power he may still take other actions regularly).

4. The Mother of BladesCrafted by the finest Pythian Engineers, this weapon contains a molecular-level monofilament in the edge. It is a long sword with a +1 bonus to hit and to damage but it completely ignores any protection from non-magical armor. Anyone being attacked by the blade will count as having AC 10 plus/minus agility modifier, plus any magical bonuses from spells or defensive items (so for example, an opponent in +3 Plate armor with a 0 agility modifier would count as having AC13).

5. The Crappy Dagger of Ugbo SpleeneaterA crude-looking dagger of primitive halfling construction, this dagger grants +1 to hit and damage. However, any creature struck by the dagger must make a fortitude save vs. DC14 or void their bowels. The intensity of this sudden expulsion will give the victim of the attack a -1 penalty to attacks, AC, and saving throws for the next 1d10 minutes. Every subsequent time the victim is struck by the dagger, they will continue to have horrific colon spasms which will given another cumulative -1 penalty. This dagger also enhances its wielder's sense of smell (granting a +4 bonus to any detection roll based on sense of smell while wielding the dagger). The dagger is chaotic and has an intelligence of 7, and being of halfling sorcery, it will dominate any wielder of lesser intelligence and fill them with an irresistible desire to eat the flesh of their slain enemies as is halfling tradition.

6. The Not So Wee Bonnie Claymore of Angus Mac BastardThis two-handed sword grants a +1 to hit and to damage. In the hands of a chaos-aligned warrior it grants an extra +2 to hit and damage on any attack where the warrior makes a full running charge against his opponent. This sword also grants the wielder the power to speak and understand the Scot Man language.

7. The Absurdly Over-sized Battle Axe of Borquart Son of BotoxThis Dwarf weapon is a two-handed axe of immense size, to the point of being inconvenient. It can only be effectively used at all by someone who has a strength of 16 or higher, and if they have less than 18 strength they will only be able to use it with a one-step reduction in the action dice rolled to hit (so a d20 attack roll would be reduced to a d16 attack roll); it will also reduce the wielder's initiative die by two steps. The Axe does 1d10 base damage, and has a +1 bonus to hit and to damage. However, in the hands of a worthy dwarf warrior it will be usable for mighty deeds of arms to shatter any non-magical objects of glass, crystal, wood, metal or stone. In the case of any large object (a wall, for example, or a robot), such mighty blows will do 4d10+4 damage (plus the wielder's strength bonus). It will even be able to break magical objects of the above materials if the roll on the deed die was a 6 or higher.

8. The Sword of Singular PurposeThis +1 long sword was said to have been forged by the Ancient Ones themselves, to serve a great purpose at a precise moment of immeasurable importance. It functions in all respects as an ordinary +1 long sword; but the legend holds that one day one shall wield it at that particular moment of destiny and then this sword, and only this sword, will have the power to strike down a great evil. Of course, some speculate that given that the Ancients have completely vanished and the world has been a complete disaster for ten millennia, it may be possible that the apocalypse-avoiding opportunity for which the sword was forged was in fact unfortunately missed.

9. GrammaslayerA dagger originally made for a particularly disgusting halfling rogue, this chaotic weapon (int 6) does +1 to hit and damage, but does double its usual damage against anyone over 65 years of age (note that the weapon is quite literal, it doesn't care about species, so it will do double damage to a 66+ year old human, or elf, or dragon, or immortal demon, etc.). It provides 60' infravision to the wielder. If wielded by someone with less than the sword's own intelligence, the weapon will control the wielder and turn them toward the wanton murder and robbery of the weak and helpless at any viable opportunity (with "viable" not always meaning truly good odds of avoiding discovery, as the dagger itself is not that bright).

10. The LorebladeCreated by the human wizard Phellion at the time that Arkhome was ruled by the Techno-Minotaur, the Loreblade is said to be the most intelligent blade very forged. It is Lawful and has an intelligence of 18, and is capable of speech and telepathy. It functions as a +1 Long Sword, but also has the quality of precision strikes (granting it an addition +3 to hit against any armored opponent). It also grants +2 to the wielder's armor class. On a critical hit, the Loreblade will also do 1d6 extra damage against an opponent in addition to any other result. The Loreblade can detect invisible creatures within 50', detect gold within 30', detect sloping passages to 100', read and understand most common languages (only the most obscure would likely to be unfamiliar to the blade), understand most maps at will, and is familiar with a great deal of knowledge of ancient history as well as lore about races and magical items: the sword has a +6 bonus on a d20 roll to know any piece of lore on any of those matters (and any others that the GM feels appropriate); but it should be noted that all of its information is now at least 500 years out of date, and it will know nothing about any recent events or developments from the past five centuries that it has been languishing in the petrified husk of a great wyrm. The Loreblade will generally co-operate only with someone of lawful alignment (refusing to use any of its powers for neutral or chaotic beings, for whom the sword will only act as an ordinary +1 long sword), and as it considers itself smarter than just about anyone who ever wields it, will have no compunctions about trying to manipulate or mentally control its wielder to do what the Loreblade thinks is best. The Loreblade's agenda will always be to attempt to rebuild civilization and create an enlightened society of lawful benign-despots (under the sword's direction, of course) that will establish peace and prosperity through power and spread its civilizing influence to the whole of the world, finally ending the long dark age.

2 comments:

At first I read number 9 as "Grammarslayer" and thought to myself, here is a sword +5 vs. grammar nazis, which can cause aphasia when it deals an odd amount of damage and logorrhoea when it deals an even amount of damage.